Friday June 21, 2002 -- Dodson MT to Wolf Point MT
"A good wanderer leaves no trace."
-- Lao Tzu, "Tao Te Ching"
I wake at dawn, eat a quick breakfast from my supplies, pack up my stuff and I'm on the road at 5:40 AM. At 6:55 AM I stop at the Malta Texaco for second breakfast and to restock my supplies. While I'm eating I chat with westbound bicycle tourist who is also stopped at this Texaco. This fellow lives in Tacoma but right now he's touring from St. Louis to Oregon along the Lewis and Clark Trail. He's very bummed about not seeing something called the Sleeping Buffalo. Apparently the Sleeping Buffalo is a big rock in the shape of a buffalo and for reason's I can't quite fathom, he's been really looking forward to seeing this rock. "It's supposed to be east of here, but I didn't see it," he mopes, "There must not have been a sign. You'd think they'd put a sign up for something like that." I have to get going but I assure this guy that I'll look out for the Sleeping Buffalo.
About 25 kilometers down the road, I see the sign for the Sleeping Buffalo. The sign is huge. The Sleeping Buffalo itself is also huge, a big rock right on the north side of the highway. It looks like, well actually it just looks like a big rock. I guess if you've been staring at nothing but Montana for days and days and have a vivid imagination you might be able to convince yourself it looks like a buffalo but I'm only seeing a rock. I take out my camera and squint at the Sleeping Buffalo through the viewfinder. The Sleeping Buffalo still looks like a big rock. I leave without taking a picture. As I roll down the road I look over my shoulder and verify that there is in fact another huge sign pointing out the Sleeping Buffalo to any westbound tourists.
On my way into Saco, I pass another cyclist. He's loaded down with touring gear and he doesn't return my greeting as I ride past him. I'm wondering if he's one of the members of the Adventure Cycling group but I figure if he is I'll see more of them down the road. I roll on.
I stop at Saco to fill my bottles and buy more food. While I'm stopped there a guy in a pickup truck asks me I'm part of some cycling group. "No," I reply, "I'm on my own. But this road is part of the Adventure Cycling Northern Tier Route. I think there's an Adventure Cycling group up ahead of me."
"They're behind you," the pickup guy tells me. "I must've passed a dozen of them between here and Malta." While we're talking the one guy I'd passed before town rolls on by. He's looking intent and doesn't stop.
I figure the main group must've camped back at Malta and I passed the main group while they were still in camp. The one fellow I've seen must be off the front, trying to get an early start. I thank the pickup guy for the information, make sure my bottles are full and roll back out on the road.
There's a headwind now and more of those low, rolling hills. I repass the cyclist I'd passed before and he's still not in a talkative mood. I keep pushing on into the wind. It's hot now with temperatures in the low eighties.
There's road construction in Glasgow. I'm looking for a place to stop and refill my water but the construction makes it hard to find any place to pull off and before I know it, I'm through town and past any likely water stops. I press on into the heat and wind.
At 2:55 PM I'm completely out of water when I stop at the little town of Nashua. There's a pop machine here and I buy a couple of bottles of lemonade and a couple of bottles of water. Refueled and refreshed, I roll on.
At 4:30 PM I stop at another little town with a little market and I buy a quart of milk and some fudge striped cookies. Snacks like this go down really easily after many kilometers in the heat and once again I roll east.
It's around 6:00 PM and there are big thunder clouds forming as Eddy and I roll into Wolf Point. The sign coming into town says "Lewis and Clark slept here, why don't you?" I really have no desire to ride into a thunderstorm so I decide the sign makes a lot of sense. I also think that camping in a thunderstorm isn't really something I have to experience right now, so I book a room at the Homestead Inn. I spend the evening writing postcards to my various friends, watching the Weather Channel, rinsing out my clothes, drinking lots of Sunkist Orange pop and listening to the thunder crash outside my window.